Here is my birth story. If you are at all likely to be put off or don’t want to read that I did find it painful, come back another day!
I suppose my birth story is a bit long because I experienced prodromal labour for a good week before Edwin was born and I suppose I should begin there.
I was experiencing painful but bearable contractions on a roughly nightly basis for about a week before I got my bloody show (on the Wednesday before Edwin was born); the show kept going after that.
Wednesday night as you know from an old post, the contractions woke me again, I was shivering, the pain was bearable but increasing, and the contractions were varying between 5 and 7 minutes apart. I rang the midwife unsure as to whether or when I should go in. I was told to have a hot shower and come in if they were all the same intensity with a 5 min or less gap. As you know they went away! I think the stress and nerves of calling in Spanish shocked me out of it again as it gave me an adrenaline rush.
The following morning I went to my appointment. As mentioned before I was 2cm dilated but was so exhausted I was sent home to rest in the hope labour would get started that night.
Friday morning I awoke without a baby but feeling quite refreshed so went for a long walk in the afternoon, as soon as I came back I noticed that I had contractions that were all over the place. They built in intensity and got more regular, I had my dinner and by 8pm they were uncomfortable enough that I had to move through them. I went to sit on the ball in my room in the dark but like every other day they seemed inclined to go unless I stayed calm and focused – this is the point at which I wrote the fuming post about MIL being noisy on the phone – I had to leave the house and get some peace and rushed out with DH for a short walk around the block. It really made my back hurt and I wasn’t sure if it had helped but I felt marginally calmer. I went back to my dark room and started to get irritated by DH staying with MIL instead of me but managed to keep my focus and relax. The fact that I really needed to stay relaxed is why I didn’t write again on the forum to say I was going in.
Over the coming hours they continued to increase in frequency and strength to the point at which I really had to use relaxation and visualisation techniques to get through each one. Just before 2am they had been at 5 mins apart (with a couple of odd ones in between). Just before 3 they went down to a gap of about 3 minutes, so I called the midwife and went in.
I was in agony in the car with each contraction – don’t wear anything which pulls tight when you sit! The pain was always in a band under my bump and it was getting stronger and stronger, it felt like it was burning and I was telling myself to breathe through the contractions.
When we arrived I was forced to sit on the bed on the monitor for ages and my worst nightmare came true – they were still prodromal or “false” labour contractions. An internal check showed I was still at 2cm as before despite the hours of contractions. Everything started to feel horribly reminiscent of DD’s birth. Only one proper contraction registered the whole time. Another internal showed I was effacing slowly with these contractions but there was no telling when true labour would kick off, it could be hours or another week which could be mild or as bad as the night I had been having. I was given the option of staying in to see how they progressed or going home. Due to the nil by mouth policy I asked to go home, I was already starving and I was worried they would interfere if I stayed.
The thing was I couldn’t stand the idea of being in that much pain for hours let alone nights and nights to come and after the next contraction hit when I was getting ready to get dressed I just started crying and explained I didn’t think I could stand the pain if it was just going to keep going on and on and could be weeks yet.
Remembering that I had to wait until 7am for hot water on the Wed/Thurs that I had called the midwives, the doctor asked if I wanted to try the pool to help with the pain and either move things forward or stop the contractions. I jumped at the chance so ended up being checked in regardless.
The bath really helped to begin with, I felt muscles I hadn’t realised I had tensed relaxing and for a short time the contractions appeared to go (apparently they don’t necessarily go but the sensation of the water can be more powerful than the sensation of pain for a time). After a while they came back, even stronger and more painful than before, the pain was always in that same band, it was beginning to make me feel sick, I was checked again and there was some but little progress. I got on my hands and knees in the tub and was rocking through each contraction but it didn’t help the pain. On one of the contractions I think I felt my water break but couldn’t be sure, I was shivering uncontrollably and I developed pins and needles down arms and legs.
The doc came and chatted to me saying she felt my symptoms were typical from being exhausted and overwhelmed with pain for a long time as it makes us less able to cope. She offered me analgesics and I said I would like pain relief but wasn’t prepared to take anything which would cross the placenta, so I was left with epidural or… epidural. I raised concerns about further intervention if I had an epidural particularly since I wasn’t in active labour but the doctor said she thought the baby was only a matter of hours away. Unlike with DD when I had had no choice in the matter I freely chose to have the epidural at this point knowing that my own reserves were finished! Apparently I am a woos! I know with DD that the unwanted epidural which was given to me in advance of urgent intervention actually moved me within less than an hour from prodromal labour to birth and really hoped the same would be true this time. By now I didn’t want to leave without the baby in my arms (and I still didn’t know if my waters had gone).
I got out the bath, said I thought my waters were leaking and within no time, the anaesthetist was there. My favourite person!
The epidural was a bit less comfortable than my first had been and was a little less effective, though that might have been on purpose since the aim was to try and preserve the urge to push. Before it became effective however I had some sort of hypercontraction, I was convinced I had been spiked with oxytocin, the contraction went on and on for several minutes, I could hear the baby’s heart getting slower and slower, I was saying “Why won’t it stop? Why won’t it stop?”. The doctor didn’t know but she helped me get through it telling me to breathe for the baby and keep him oxygenated. I thought it was all over, I thought I was about to be rushed off for an emcs but it stopped and I didn’t have another one. In fact I think that it may have marked some kind of transition period for me as things moved really fast from that point. Once the epidural had been in half an hour I was moved to lie on one side, a bit later after I said I could feel less pain and a lot of pressure on my coccyx and cervix I was checked and moved to the other side to help the baby rotate into a better position for birth. That worked brilliantly and soon after I had to wake DH (who was snoring his head off in the chair next to me – time spent in the forces really does condition people to be able to sleep anywhere through anything it seems!) as I thought I could feel the head. They had a look, I was finally fully dilated and he was on his way down the birth canal. They put me back on my back, dropped the foot of the bed away from my pelvis so that the sacrum and coccyx could move freely and told me to push when I needed to. Just as the doctor turned around to get her tray of instruments ready I said “He’s coming, he’s coming”, they looked over sceptically, then rushed over to catch him saying they’d never seen a baby born so easily on the contraction! He was passed up to my tummy and was crying on his own straight away, that moment was no less magical second time around than first time.
DH later said he thought I looked amazed he was here already and I explained it wasn’t that, it was amazement that the huge surge of emotion and love you feel can happen more than once in a life time.
Though not traumatic, I did find it very painful, very long and extremely demoralizing after what must have been two weeks of contractions which got gradually worse and worse. Those muscles in my lower abdomen where all the pain has been concentrated feel like they have had a real hammering.
So, there we go – that’s mine and I hope you don’t feel it has worried you.
